


Getting To Know You (Again)

by koganeisms (reiirae)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, they’re retail workers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 09:39:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13878201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reiirae/pseuds/koganeisms
Summary: My work for the Voltron Positivity Day! <3





	Getting To Know You (Again)

There were a lot of shitty jobs in the world, and Shiro was pretty sure he’d picked out on of the worst. Retail.

Hours of complaining customers, loud children, argumentative mothers, confused elderly people - it was enough to drive anyone insane. But Shiro needed the money; his rent was expensive as it was, without factoring in all his other living expenses. He was lucky to come from a family wealthy enough to pay his schooling fees for him, but most other expenses were left for him to figure out.

Now Shiro wasn’t one to shy away from work, not at all; he had always done his fair share of household chores and spare jobs from a young age. But his job in a small department store twenty minutes away from his apartment block made him question his sanity regularly. He couldn’t understand how some of the employees had worked here upwards of ten years. 

Sure, the job had its perks. Shiro could pick up cheaper clothing, which helped his already stretched budget, and some of his coworkers were fun to hang out with from time to time. 

The main reason he took this job was for it’s flexible hours - he needed something that would fit around his half-completed music production course nicely without consuming all of his evenings. There was no way he could quit, unfortunately, because there wasn’t much chance of him finding somewhere else with the kind of working hours he wanted. 

It wasn’t all bad, he supposed. There were probably worse jobs in the world, even if he struggled to remind himself of that fact every time another customer tried to return a clearly-used item with no receipt or original packaging. 

His school life was similar. He kept to a tight-knit group of friends, most of whom had shared a class with him at some point, and rarely socialised without them. It wasn’t that he was an unfriendly person - Shiro considered himself to be quite approachable, actually - he just didn’t know how to go about making friends. Friendships just sort of happened for Shiro, and he wasn’t about to complain about that.

Until Lance came along. Loud, obnoxious, extremely annoying - the absolute opposite of Shiro. It was during a brief workshop where those taking music production and performance courses were placed into a class together to work on a small project. He had hoped to be paired with Keith, one of his few friends, but ended up being paired with the class clown - Lance McClain.

He’d heard enough bad stuff about Lance from Keith, and only seconds after Lance had opened his mouth, Shiro understood what the younger boy had been talking about. It was like he didn’t know where to stop - Lance could keep talking forever, even if it was about the most trivial topics in the world. It was strangely awe-inspiring to Shiro; a person who could talk for so long without managing to even piss themselves off. 

Eventually, Lance had shut up for long enough to get some solid plans down, and Shiro listened to Lance sing properly. And damn, this guy was good. If you pushed aside his loud, invasive exterior, his raw talent created a completely different Lance that nobody would have expected to exist within such a showy individual. 

This Lance was quieter, more subdued and subtle. He didn’t yell or jump around for attention. She didn’t tell ridiculous half truths to bask in the wide eyed gazes of his more gullible companions. Instead, he spoke in a softer voice, occasionally disrupted by the sound of a pencil scratching against paper as he frantically took notes. His desperation to improve was kinda cute, actually. 

They made a good team, Keith always said, despite his undying hatred for Lance. The project ran smoothly, with both students receiving high grades, and soon after Shiro realised it was lonely not seeing Lance almost every day. 

And that was when his job hired a few new people. Two older employees had recently quit for better jobs, forcing his boss to seek out new staff members. Shiro didn’t care either way - he wasn’t exactly close with any of them. 

Lance showed up for training the following day. Shiro felt his heart begin to pound at the sight of the Cuban boy, occupying himself by tidying away some cardboard boxes to hide his flushed face. Maybe he liked Lance more than he cared to admit. 

Lance wasn’t in training for very long - he picked things up very quickly, according to one of Shiro’s colleague, so they’d moved him straight into working as fast as they possibly could. They couldn’t risk a store this big being understaffed, after all. 

“Hey, Shiro!” a familiar voice chimed behind him, chasing the man to whip around with wide eyes.

“Lance, what’s up?” he asked, trying to mask his excitement. 

“I just came to see how you’ve been doing,” Lance smiled easily, leaning against the shelves. “It’s been too long.”

“Y-Yeah. I’ve missed you.” Shiro replied honestly, ducking his head slightly.

He heard Lance laugh softly, and he looked back up to see what the boy had found so amusing. “You coulda called me, man. I wouldn’t have said no to hanging out sometime.” he offered, stepping closer to Shiro. “You’re a cool guy.”

“Thanks.” Shiro replied nervously, an anxious smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “What made you go for a job here?” 

“Huh? Oh, I got fired from my last one. Apparently I was too distracting.” Lance replied airily, shaking his head disbelievingly. “I know, it’s ridiculous!” 

Shiro laughed softly, shaking his head. “I can’t imagine how you could ever be distractions, Lance.” he joked. 

“I can tell you’re being sarcastic, and I’m offended.” Lance quipped, although the friendly smile on his face suggested otherwise.

“I’m sorry, Lance.” Shiro apologised, smirking down at him. 

“Forgiven,” Lance shot back, before tilting his head to one side and raising an eyebrow. “We really do need to catch up. You busy this weekend?” 

Shiro felt his heart skip a beat at Lance’s words, dumbly shaking his head. “N-Nope, I’m free.” he mumbled, feeling his cheeks heat up.

“Great!” Lance beamed. “We should totally go out for drinks or something! Does Saturday work for you? At like, seven?”

“Yeah, t-that should be fine…” Shiro stammered, smiling nervously. “I can text you when I’ve checked, if you’d like.” he offered, despite the fact he knew he was definitely _not_ busy at all this weekend, or any of the weekends following it.

“That’s cool,” Lance replied simply, before looking down at the box of lightbulbs in his hands. “I’d love to keep chatting, but I really should go put these out before I get fired from this job too.” he joked, glancing down at the bulbs before back up at Shiro’s face.

“Of course. I’ll see you Saturday?” Shiro asked, finally able to get his heart rate back under control.

“I’m looking forward to it.” Lance replied, and with that he turned on his heel and began to walk down the aisle towards the lighting section of the store. 

Shiro didn’t move from his spot, still in disbelief over the whole conversation that had just taken place. Lance had essentially asked him out, even if he probably wasn’t considering a date as such. Why was this bothering him so much? He couldn’t have ignored his true feelings that much, could he? It seemed he had, considering the way his heart raced throughout their conversation - Lance must think he’s a total idiot after his reactions just then.

Guess he’d just have to convince him otherwise on Saturday.


End file.
